Winter, Fire and Snow
by jenhill7
Summary: Taking place just where the movie left off. Elsa and Anna have to adjust to their new way of living, and to the feelings they are starting to have for each other. ELSANNA, will be mature. Some angst. First fanfic for Frozen, would love feedback.
1. Chapter 1

**Winter, Fire and Snow**

**Chapter One**

The knock was so timid on the door that at first Anna mistook it for the popping of the fire. Only when the knock came again, slightly louder, did she look toward the door and say, "Come in."

She was delighted and a trifle dismayed to see her older sister, Elsa, standing in the doorway, bearing two steaming mugs in her hands. Her sister's pale face held so many words and stories that she would never say aloud. She hovered in the doorway and said, "I brought you some hot chocolate."

Anna scooted over slightly on the couch and patted the empty space. It was summer again in Arendelle, had been summer for a few hours now, but a hint of chill was in the air. Anna didn't know if it was from the memory of the ice and snow that had followed Elsa's dread coronation, or the simple fact that their northern kingdom oft had chilly nights, even in summer.

Elsa came in and held out one mug; Anna took it and blew on it slightly before sniffing. It was rich and deep, with a hint of something unfamiliar.

"I had them add a touch of chilli to it," Elsa explained, sitting down on the farthest section of the couch. "You know, to give it some extra heat. Keep you warm."

"Thank you." Anna sipped, but the beverage was still too hot. With a sudden smile and flashing dimple, she held her mug out to her sister. "Would you mind cooling it, just a little?"

Elsa finally smiled herself. She merely pointed at the mug and it became marginally cooler in her hands, the perfect temperature for sipping and enjoying.

The casual display of her sister's incredible magic was still strange to see, and a slight barb of envy lodged itself in Anna's heart.

Anna abruptly looked back at the fire, the movement not lost on her sister. Elsa sipped from her own mug, her insides suddenly stormy. She felt the magic crowd her palms, the tingling and burning that preceded an icy surge, and her heart seemed to cleave terribly in two.

She should have known it would take longer than this to gain control over her powers, and that several days of fury and snow could not erase the years that came before.

So many frozen years, all static and unchanging.

Elsa looked down to the clump of icy chocolate that had formed in her mug, a silent witness to her momentary loss of control, and said, "I better go." She would not look at Anna as she left; she had put her beloved sister through far too much pain. She should have known that this was too soon, the wounds too fresh, too deep. Her heart in tatters, she began to rise from the couch.

Anna's hand, deliciously warm from her mug, grabbed her hand.

Then her eyes, those amazing and courageous eyes, were looking right at her. "Please don't go," she said. "We've been apart far too long."

Her hand tugged her back in place, and then kept holding on, with no sense of embarrassment or shame. The warmth was indescribable; Elsa had known only cold for so long. Her eyes held her just as fast, anchoring her, grounding her to this moment and no other, and Elsa felt the magic creep back into its eternal residence along her spine.

Only then did Anna release her hand and release her eyes, and they were left to stare at the glowing embers of the crackling fire. "Have a sip of mine," Anna offered, holding out her mug.

Elsa was about to refuse, but the tigress she had earlier witnessed in her sister's eyes came out in full force. She set her own frozen drink aside, took Anna's mug and sipped a few times before handing it back.

Their fingers collided on the warm ceramic, and the most glorious blush came upon Anna's cheeks. She took a quick sip, coughed slightly, and then turned to face Elsa head on, shifting her position on the couch. "We have a lot to catch up on."

Elsa chuckled, deep and warm, and the sound of it went right to Anna's heart. Elsa had the most amazing voice, womanly and powerful, a voice that belonged to a Queen. In the lonely years of their childhood, Anna would occasionally get up at night, to sit outside Elsa's door.

Because sometimes, Elsa would sing.

Only late at night, that transcendent time when it ceases to be very very late and instead becomes very very early. She sang barely loud enough for Anna to hear.

And sometimes, it was Anna's song she would sing.

_(do you want to build a snowman?)_

The sense of mourning was immense in her broken words, especially after their parent's death.

Anna would live for those moments to hear her sister sing. She thought it the most heartbreakingly beautiful thing in the world.

And it was nothing compared to the glory of hearing Elsa laugh.

To have Elsa here with her, right here on the couch in front of a fire, sharing a drink and just sharing each other's company, the beauty of it made her throat clam up. She wanted to sound as rich and deep and wise as her older sister. She didn't want to be a child anymore, or do so many of her crazy and childish things.

"Why did you come find me tonight?" Anna asked.

Elsa looked down at her pale hands before looking up again. "I wanted to make sure that you're all right. And… I wanted to say I'm sorry. For what happened on the North Mountain. That I'm sorry for striking you, and nearly killing you."

Anna's dear face was glowing with life and vitality, all her attention fixated on Elsa. Elsa ran her hand through her mane of platinum hair. "And I'm sorry for everything before."

Anna still did not say anything. What else had happened to her sister, normally so ebullient, so free?

She looked into Anna's eyes, at the absence of the streak of white in her hair. The eternal reminder of that first accident, how Elsa had hated seeing that streak in her sister's hair, and now she missed it.

And remembered earlier this day, when the world entire seemed to go stark and still at Hans' dread words. "Anna is dead, because of you," he had told her, and with those words all life flowed from Elsa's bones. Yes, she was Queen, but she had always felt that her first and great duty was to watch over her sister. Protect her from all the bad things in the world, of which Elsa herself was the worst.

Elsa had fallen to the ground, the storm stilled at last, for life as she knew it was over, and more than over. She had killed her own sister and wanted nothing more than her own death. She could not live on, not while Anna was dead at her hands, the last of her kin gone forever. Better to feel the clench of the sword, to be pierced on the blade and end this farce of a life ringed about with ice and gloves and concealment.

"Tell me, Elsa, what are you thinking now?" Anna quietly asked.

"You cannot imagine what it felt like to hear that you were dead," Elsa made herself say. "To hear that I had killed you. I, your own sister! That I couldn't control the storm in me, that I had hurt you again, just like I did when we were kids, and this time I froze your heart! Oh, I wanted Hans to kill me, because I couldn't imagine facing life without you!"

Anna opened her mouth as if to say something, but Elsa couldn't stop, not now, not when truth was finally able to come free of her stoppered tongue. "You coming out of nowhere, putting yourself between me and the blade, and you couldn't have known that he wouldn't strike you, that my magic would finally freeze you completely. You accepted that he would kill you instead of me, and how could you do that? Why on earth did you stop him? After I had struck you, and thrown you from my house, and sent my ice monster after you, and told you to leave me be! Why, why after all this did you sacrifice yourself for me?"

Anna's warm hands reached out to touch her face. "Ssh, Elsa. It's the same answer now as it was earlier today. Because I love you. You're my sister. You're my life. I love you."

"Even after all these years of shutting you out?" Elsa cried. "After so many years of closed doors in your face? We've barely said more than ten words to each other each year, how on earth could you love me enough to save me?"

Tears eked from her eyes and slowly slid down Elsa's cool cheeks. Anna rubbed one of them away with her thumbs, and then pulled Elsa into a fierce embrace.

"Let it go, Elsa," she murmured into her sister's ear.

Elsa's hands clutched her almost savagely as she began to sob. Anna held her, even when Elsa's skin began to grow cold. "Can you even imagine what it felt like to lose you?" Elsa whispered. "To hold your body that was turned to solid ice, and have no idea of how to take it back? You were gone, Anna, your sweet and courageous spirit was gone forever and it was all my fault!"

"Why do you think I was so desperate to bring you back to Arendelle with me?" Anna replied, her words clinging to Elsa's thick mane of hair. "I couldn't imagine life without you, either. I would do anything to have you back, to have you be my sister again, the way we once were. I already know what it felt like to lose you, Elsa, and I'd be damned if I was going to let it happen again!"

Elsa drew back and lifted her face, and then placed her cool palm on Anna's cheek.

Then she lifted her palm, and drew her close again, and kissed her on that same cheek. To Anna the kiss felt like cold fire, a warmth that ran like a shiver down her arms and legs, sent sparks aburst in her heart. "I'll never shut you out again," Elsa vowed.

"And I'll never leave you," Anna replied.

Elsa finally smiled, and leaned back to run her hands through her hair. "Sweetheart, someday you'll fall in love, and you'll probably leave me then. You have the whole world at your feet. You're barely eighteen, you have your whole life ahead of you."

Unspoken were the words she had memorized long ago, the words condemning her to life as Queen, to be the good girl she always had to be. Frozen by her birthright, and how intoxicating that day had been upon her ice palace, feeling herself free of that burden forever.

Anna's return look was fierce. "I'm never leaving Arendelle."

Chewy warmth spread through Elsa's heart, and she smiled at her little sister. "I know better than to argue with you," she laughed. "Though I am curious to find out about a certain ice broker with a reindeer fixation."

Anna blushed.

Somewhere in the distance, a clock chimed midnight.

Elsa's face fell slightly. Another night, alone in her room, just as if nothing had changed. She looked at the logs as they popped and settled, and missed Anna's sad expression.

If she had seen it, much would have changed, much faster.

"I guess I should go to bed. Big day tomorrow. There's lots to sort out," Elsa said, turning back to look at Anna.

Her sister's eyes were wide with tiredness, her face flush, every bit of her endearing. Just looking at her made her heart clutch. Looking and remembering how it felt to hold her close, to be reunited. To have Anna's hand on her arm as the ship rose beneath them, the skies restored to their summer blue.

Remembering how Kristoff had looked at her sister, a look of soft indulgence and amusement and affection.

The thought of Kristoff looking at her sister mired her in sudden speculation as a great beast of jealousy roared along her spine. The feeling of possessiveness she had always felt for her sister had a tinge of something new, something to be pondered in the endless hours of her frozen life that stretched ahead of her.

"I'm going to stay here a bit longer," Anna said, even though she then yawned. "I'm enjoying the fire."

Elsa bit her tongue just slightly at the words. "Sleep well, Anna," she said as she got up. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Anna nodded, her thoughts tumultuous. There was a strange swooping sensation in her gut as she watched her sister get up from the couch. Elsa had such fluid grace, such amazing hips. She watched Elsa leave the room and then turned her attention back to the fire.

It was hard to stay warm. Elsa had thawed her frozen heart earlier today, but it seemed there was still something in there, some core of ice that pressed against her spine. She pondered it as she watched the fire slowly die, and in a moment of sleepy clarity she thought she understood.

Tomorrow would come, and how much would tomorrow change from all the yesterdays that came before? Would Elsa's change of heart remain, or would she revert back to the Snow Queen?

Anna smiled as she finally left the warmth of the sitting room, the fire only a gloaming bed of coals.

For the first time in forever, Elsa had knocked on her door.

Elsa woke with the streaming light of dawn. Servants were already busy in her quarters, pouring warm water into basins for washing, setting out clothing from her press. There was a pair of gloves that matched her dress waiting for her on the bureau. Once alone, she slipped into those clothes and then stared at the gloves.

_(conceal it, don't feel it_

_don't let it show)_

Anger at her father pooled in her jaw. Couldn't he have known that all the restrictions on her magic, on her time with Anna, would have led to the all-encompassing fear that typified her entire existence? With no way to practice controlling her magic, no exercises to channel it in useful ways, the only thing left was fear. Fear of hurting someone like she had hurt Anna.

Elsa swallowed back her anger as she opened her palm. A miniature replica of her ice palace on the North Mountain formed in the air above it. Realizing it would only melt as soon as she was gone, Elsa drew the ice back into herself, and left her room with a puff of breath visible in the cold air.

The morning passed swiftly. There were ships to be repaired, whole sections of the castle to be rebuilt, and decisions made about the Duke of Weselton and Prince Hans.

She was served lunch privately, and when she asked around for Anna, she discovered that her sister had left for the town on an errand, something to do with Kristoff.

Damn Kristoff.

The loneliness that struck her heart was sharper than any felt before. So this is what happened when she stopped controlling her emotions.

Elsa contemplated just sliding back into her old routine, for it was known and expected, for all it was empty and dire.

But then she thought of Anna's courage. How she had come to the palace, seeking her out.

How she had allowed herself to die in order for Elsa to live.

Elsa would not cheapen Anna's gift.

The effort to stay engaged, interested, alert and sensitive took all the power she possessed. The magic stayed coiled along her spine, for which she was grateful. Perhaps she could be Queen after all.

Yet even that resolve felt taxed as the day wound to its inevitable close, as bereft of Anna's company as all the days before. The girl had not returned to the castle for dinner. Even Olaf could not be found.

Elsa dressed in her evening robes and read by her fire for a while. Well, pretended to read, for the words made no sense while the storm of thought raged within. Suddenly making up her mind, she slipped down to the sitting room, hoping against hope that Anna would be there, just as she had been the night before.

The room was empty, and dark, and cold.

To her own bedchamber she returned, and watched the sun bleed out of the sky, impaled on the mountains surrounding Arendelle.

_(earlier that day)_

Anna had a groom ready her horse, and shortly after the town resumed its happy, ice-free rumbling, she was on her way back to the North Mountain. Alone this time, even turning Olaf away and feeling bad about it. She just wanted to be by herself for a little while, to try and make sense of everything that had happened the last few days.

It wasn't true summer, not quite yet. It was the molten shift between seasons, the traditional time of dancing around the Maypole, giving offerings of flowers to the old gods for a year of abundance.

She had to fight to remember the right landmarks, mentally adding a layer of snow to all of them in order to be sure of her course. Taking the route up the old avalanche clearings was the fastest, and behind the curve of a mountain she saw the towering, snow-struck magnificence that was the North Mountain.

Several hours later she swung down from the saddle, holding the reins lightly in a gloved hand before fastening them to a nearby rock.

The staircase was already crumbling, and would be dangerous to cross. Anna looked up and across the chasm. Spires had begun their decay, and the gorgeous fractals and shapes were losing their keenness.

Looking at Elsa's creation brought a wave of awe to Anna's breast. She allowed herself the time to gaze fulsomely on it, to memorize its grandness, its purity. She would never forget the feeling of star-struck wonder that came upon her when she first beheld the ice palace.

Wonder and crushing insignificance. Her sister was capable of so much beauty, wielding incredible power in her hands. How could Anna have been so blind for so long?

She couldn't help herself – Anna gathered her courage and ran across the bridge, fast as a deer, slipping but once or twice on the melting scree of ice before flinging herself to the top.

The door opened to her touch. She walked into the echoing, melting entrance hall. The fountain before her was wilting for want of her sister's touch. Anna looked at the double staircase and remembered seeing her sister stand on the upper landing.

Queen Elsa was beautiful. But Ice Elsa was beautifuller. Her hair free of its confines, a thick and glorious cable of white gold over one shoulder. Her dress of the most sterling blue, the slit up to her knee, the gauzy cloak that draped over the lip of the ice floor.

The Anna that beheld that sight a few days ago had stopped in frank admiration. Today Anna allowed herself to remember the other sensation she had felt.

It had been a strike to her heart, a hollowing of her stomach, an endless vibration that had flensed her muscles. She had felt similarly only once before, when she first noticed Hans, but what she felt then was only a pale shadow to what she had felt seeing Elsa as a woman, and free.

She named it, and as she named it she was struck with fear.

_(attraction_

_I'm attracted to her_

_I'm attracted to my sister)_

No.

_(yes)_

A vast growl of hunger clenched her stomach. Her food was back with her horse, back across the staircase and into the summer world. Maybe when she was back in the summer world she could convince herself yet again that she was a child and a fool, feeling things that weren't real, things that were a product of her extreme need for love and affection.

Maybe back in the summer world she would know there was no way she could be attracted to her own sister.

Reasoning thus, she did not move for several more hours. She strolled the ice halls and looked up into the galleries and chambers above. Everything was stamped with beauty, with Elsa's fluid grace. Everything she saw screamed of her inadequacies, her own ordinariness.

Finally weary and everlastingly hungry, Anna left, shutting the ice door behind her. She stood and looked down at the staircase, which seemed in only these hours to be even more treacherous than before.

She should have brought rope. Maybe a hatchet. And someone to rescue her from the rash choices she habitually made.

Anna started down, slower this time, feeling ominous creaking from the ice steps.

She didn't know that the staircase had been weakened by the ice monster as he tumbled into the ravine below, that hairline cracks stretched ever and beyond the gaping hole in the railing.

She found it out the hard way.

Five steps down, and the creak became a crash. Just before her the step disintegrated, and Anna hugged the slippery railing, her boots slipping on the ice.

For the second time in as many days, Anna came face to face with death.

She leaped for the upper landing, her hands scrabbling over slippery grass and ice, and as she gained her purchase she desperately rolled up and away. She stood on trembling feet and watched as the entire staircase disintegrated, showering chunks of ice into the vast depths of the ravine below.

She was trapped.

And she had told no one where she was going.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

When Elsa first heard the knock on her door, she rose from sleep with a throb of anticipation, thinking that Anna had come at last. But it took only one moment for the knock to be nothing like those she had received from her sister.

"My Queen?" Kai called from beyond the door. "Queen Elsa, please wake." Nothing masked the urgency in his voice, and the magic along her spine erupted in the wake of fear.

"What is it?" she called as she flew from her bed, adorning herself quickly in an ice dress. She opened the door to lantern-light and the face of her most trusted advisor.

"It's Princess Anna, Your Majesty. She has not returned. She is missing."

Instantly, a wave of frost burst from her shoulders and sped down her arms. Elsa ignored the flicker of astonishment in Kai's eyes and retracted the ice just as fast. "Find Kristoff and Olaf. Question them. And if they don't know where she is, run to the watchtower and sound the alarm. Wake the entire city if necessary. No one sleeps until my sister is found."

He accepted her orders with alacrity and loyalty, mustering a dozen guards as he left.

Elsa did not waste a minute – she ran down the hall to Anna's bedroom, bursting with heaving breath into the open and empty space. It was indeed dark and bereft of presence. With a snap of her fingers, the ceiling erupted in flickering globes of icy light; a depth of control over her magic she didn't even know she was capable of.

Shadows were muzzy and indistinct in the diffuse light. The bed was made, the wardrobe doors closed, and the only portion of the room that was in disarray was a scattering of items on her dressing table. Elsa went there first, and ran her fingers over the two little dolls that represented them as children, propped now against the mirror. A jewellery box held a smattering of Anna's various adornments.

In the past few years, Elsa had sometimes used the secret passages within the castle to come upon her sister unawares, to watch her from a safe distance, to bask in the innocent wanderings and games she played for her own amusement. And sometimes she had seen Anna carrying a small book, curling up by various fires and writing in it.

Elsa would never in a million years contemplate invading Anna's privacy by reading that diary.

Extreme circumstances called for extreme measures. Maybe Anna had written in it after retiring last night, maybe she had said something of her plans. Elsa would just flip to the last page that had writing in it, and then she'd skim, only skim the passages to make sure that no clue went unnoticed.

The diary was in the top drawer.

And true to her word, Elsa furiously flipped pages to the last.

Her heart sunk. It spoke only of the coronation in a week's time. Elsa began to close the book, but was arrested by the sight of her name and the sentences that followed.

"It's Elsa's coronation next week. And for the first time in forever, the gates are going to be opened, and there is going to be dancing and music in the ballroom, and I couldn't care less about the cakes, the music, even the chocolate, or all the people who will come. Elsa is going to be there, I'm actually going to be able to look at her for as long as I want, and oh diary, I'm going to stare at her until my eyes bug out, because this may be the last time in forever that I'll see her in person, face to face. I'm going to memorize every inch of her, from her hair to her gloves to her toes, because it might need to last for an awful long time.

"And, only here I'll admit it. I'm scared. I don't want to face more empty years, echoing and alone in this damned castle. I'm scared to look at her and love her like a sister, because she's just going to break my heart again. Just one day, and I'm supposed to make it last?

"God, I miss her so much! I can't live like this anymore."

Elsa forced herself to slam the pages shut, the words branded to the back of her retinas, the words Anna had said during their altercation at the ball. She put the diary back in its original place and rushed from the room, her footsteps echoing in the long and dim halls, echoing back through time and loneliness and fear.

Elsa made her way down to the courtyard and was pleased to see lighted torches and the bustle of activity. Just then a couple of guards rushed to Kai, their faces solemn. She could read their news in the fall of his face, but they still struck her bones when he reported to her that Kristoff had not seen Anna at all the previous day, and that Olaf hadn't seen her either, busy as he'd been playing with the children around the Maypole.

The foe-bells began to ring as the second part of her orders came into effect. The soldiers would descend on the town, mired in the pre-dawn darkness, to knock on every door, to ask every soul within if they'd seen Princess Anna.

The wait was torture. Elsa retired to the sitting room, unable to keep her composure in the face of her subjects and her all-encompassing fear. As she paced the floor, streaks of frost left glowing footprints in her wake.

This was just as bad, nay worse, than seeing Anna frozen solid. The unknown was malicious and unkind. So many horrific ends rushed through Elsa's mind, each more dire and terrifying than the last.

She finally sank to the floor and folded her arms tight over her breast. "Please, let her be safe. Let her be found. Please, oh please bring her back to me. I won't waste another day, another moment. I will give her all she desires and more, only let her be safe, let her be found."

The words of that prayer on her lips, she rocked herself back and forth, only peripherally aware of ice blossoms etched on the window glass, refracting the light of the lit torches outside. Only vaguely aware of the hours that passed in sleeplessness, the occasional shout of the guards, and over and above all the clang of the foe-bells.

…

Thus came a bitter dawn. The entire town had been searched, and parties of soldiers were now outfitted to ride in every direction, to search every crevice.

When Kai gave his last report, over a bowl of steaming oatmeal that Elsa simply could not eat, she made a decision. "Saddle my horse," she commanded. "I can't stay here, I have to join the search."

"Your Majesty, we need you here, to direct the efforts. What if Anna returns and you are gone? Please, you'll be safer here. If this is a malicious attack or a hostage-taking, we cannot risk you out there."

"Then have several of your guards accompany me, but I'm leaving. Now."

His final protests struck the ice-crystal of her dress but could not stop her. Elsa barrelled down to the sunny courtyard and shouted for her horse. Two soldiers hastily formed up behind her at Kai's curt request, and soon they were cantering out of the castle proper, a train of frost in their wake.

And in moments she remembered the sharp edifice of North Mountain, the lonesome peak that had called so cunningly to her earlier, and knew where Anna had gone. Their roles had been reversed once more; Elsa tore up the mountain in search of her sister, her outriders barely able to keep up with her. They called for her to stop and rest the horses as frantic hours passed and they drew near Oaken's place, but she ignored them.

Until they were crossing a shallow river, and one of the soldier's horses foundered. Elsa writhed in impatience as they ran their sturdy hands over the horse's legs, the beast trembling and anxious. "He cannot be ridden, Your Majesty," the captain finally reported. "I do not want you to continue with only one soldier at your side. Let us go back to Oaken's and put up this horse, and we can borrow another to continue onward."

Elsa shook her head. "I must go on, Captain. Right now."

"We've been riding hard, even your own horse is exhausted. We can walk them for a while and then resume our speed. Please, Your Majesty, allow me to advise you in this."

Elsa's heart quailed against his damning reason. Some instinct deeper than the frost that lined her veins said that speed was essential, that even moments counted against her sister's life. She thought of Olaf, and of the ice monster she had created.

Yes.

"Follow me up the North Mountain as fast as you can, Captain, but I am going on. Right now."

She did not hear his continued protestations. She was far too occupied with creating a mental image of her desire, refining and perfecting the power that had brought two beings of snow to sentient life. Then the magic spun down her spine and burst from her lifted hands.

An enormous snowy white eagle blossomed into being, larger than two horses put together. A bridle of sorts connected his head to a long saddle by his wings. Her newest creation opened his mouth and shrieked to the heavens, causing a flock of sparrows to burst from the nearby trees in fear.

The mouths of her soldiers were wide, agape. The eagle was exquisite beyond words.

Elsa climbed onto the back of the eagle, and he bore her touch with the faithfulness of all good hounds. They were linked by thought and creation; she urged him up into the air without saying a word. The snow-beast leaped forward with incredible bounds of speed, his wings shearing through the air, leaving shards of ice to tumble in their wake.

Leaving her soldiers far and behind.

The sensation of flight was unbelievable. It would have been the most remarkable thing she had ever experienced, had her heart not been burning in fear for her sister.

Anna. She would like this, this joyous abandon, this soaring of wing and cloud and sky. Elsa could imagine it so easily: her sister tight against her back, holding her waist, her braids streaming behind her in a sunstruck crimson, and her innocent and beautiful face lifted to the heavens.

She remembered her earlier passage up this peak, the jubilation she had felt at finally letting go, joyous in the intricacies of her power. She had never felt so open and so free. The palace had emerged from the deepest wishes of her mind, a place of beauty and a place of solitude, a place to hide and keep her precious ones safe.

It had called to Anna once, and Elsa was sure it had called to her again.

But why leave so recklessly? Why risk any of the accidents or calamities that befell those who adventured in the rocky and tumbled peaks surrounding Arendelle? Why would she not have told anyone of her intentions?

Elsa and her eagle rounded a corner and saw everything at once: Anna's horse, tethered and terrified, the melted and half-collapsed spires of the palace, the aching gap between the remote outcrop and this broad shoulder of rock where once her icy staircase had been.

They swooped once around the peak, noticing a perilous connection to a farther mountain, and quickly returned to the broad grass before the entrance. Elsa leaped from the eagle's broad back and scrambled through the doors.

Her eyes perceived the colour of Anna's robes instantly, while also perceiving that the bundle of robes was still and unmoving. Her sister was upon the upper landing of the great staircase in the entry hall. Both staircases were splintered, sundered, scattered in great chunks on the floor, trapping Anna yet again in unfathomable height.

Other dread shapes there were. The bodies of two dead wolves were on the slick icy ground among the chunks of staircase, misshapen and broken, with pools of blood that stained the clear slate blue of the floor.

Oh, god. Anna had been helpless, and attacked by wolves. Forced to fend for herself. Perilous once more in the midst of Elsa's great creation.

"ANNA!" Elsa screamed as she summoned her magic, a column of ice quickly lifting her up to the level of the upper landing.

The figure was still unmoving. Elsa rushed to her side, crouching and clutching the still form, her fingers stroking Anna's cheek, realizing with the first painful burst of joy that Anna was breathing, and that there was a steady pulse at her throat. Her skin was pale save for hot flushed cheeks, and her lips and nails seemed almost without colour.

Exposure. Hypothermia. Of course Elsa was intimately aware of these things; her body could withstand even the most terrible of temperatures, but the frail bodies of her family could not. She had unwittingly inflicted frostbite and hypothermia on both of her parents in those tumultuous years of concealment and fear.

And there were great rents in Anna's cloak, with bandages tied around one leg and one arm, hardened with dark blood. Near one fallen hand was a club of ice, as if yanked from the railing, the only weapon at hand to counter the snapping jaws of the wolves.

Her beloved girl gave a low piteous moan when Elsa lifted her into her lap. When she opened her eyes, they were so weary and full of pain. "Elsa?" she murmured.

"I'm here, darling, I'm here," Elsa replied, rocking her softly, her heart breaking yet again, as if doomed to break and heal and break and heal in a never-ending cycle of agony and hope.

Which, Elsa was astonished to discover, was still better than being frozen altogether and feeling nothing.

"I knew you would come," she whispered, lifting her cold hand to touch Elsa's cheek.

Elsa leaned into that hand, and kissed the palm.

And before she could stop herself, or remind herself that Anna was her sister, her kin, she pulled Anna's face close and kissed her, ever so softly, on her cool and chapped lips. It was just a moment, and a glorious moment at that, one she could have frozen forever. But she pulled away just as quickly, her heart aching and huge in her throat, remorse and shame clouding her vision.

_(what have I done?)_

But Anna would not let her go; she wrapped her arms around Elsa's body and tucked her ginger head by her heart. "Oh, Elsa," she murmured. "I'm sorry I took off without telling anyone, and I got so hungry and so cold, and then the wolves came, and I thought I was a goner, I thought I'd never see you again."

"Ssh, darling," Elsa murmured, stroking Anna's hair. "I'm here, you're safe now. You're still a stinker, but you're safe. Now let's get you home."

Elsa wasn't sure if she would be strong enough to carry Anna, but she managed to pick up her sister and take her to the column of ice, which then lowered them to the ground.

She carried Anna out to the broad lawn, but that was as far as her over-taxed limbs could allow. She set down her precious burden, watching as Anna's eyes widened in wonder to look at the great white eagle that waited nearby.

But then a wash of faint overcame her, and she fell unconscious on the grass. "Anna?" Elsa cried, rubbing her hands, touching her cheeks. She could feel the brightness of fever within. Fear caused a miniature blizzard to shake the air around her, which she controlled just enough to keep from touching her sister.

Elsa looked to the eagle, who strode up to them, then crouched as low to the ground as was possible. Elsa pulled Anna with her on the eagle's back, lashing them both securely in place with flexible ropes of ice.

Another great leap into the shimmering air and soon they flew above her astonished soldiers. Elsa waved at the Captain to turn around and follow them back to Arendelle. The labouring horses and their riders were quickly left behind.

Anna had not moved at all during the desperate flight, and Elsa was greatly taxed by keeping her fear from engulfing them both in waves of snow. Soon she could see the glittering water of the fjord, the tall and proud masts of ships in the harbour, and the steeply gabled roofs of her city and her castle.

For all it was her castle, it was not her home. Her home was only here, beneath the slip of fabric that was her sister's clothing, within the warm confines of Anna's heart and soul. Anna was hearth and home, and the only reason now to keep living.

In the last moments before arriving, Elsa remembered the short and exquisite kiss and shook her head. She had no right to kiss her sister like that. No right to treat her as anything but the most cherished of kin. Anna had her own life, and it would likely lead her away from Arendelle eventually, married off to a Prince of the border lands (but never the Southern Isles or anywhere that Weaseltown).

If she were lucky, Anna would not remember the kiss. If recalled, perhaps it would be cast as only a fever dream, some hallucination caused by her ordeal.

And Elsa would make good on her promise. Anna had been found, Anna would be safe now, and Elsa would make reality of all Anna's desires, even if they involved a certain pungent reindeer man. She would do what was best for her sister, even if Anna's ideal life took her far away.

Anna's selfless act of true love and sacrifice thawed more than the fjords. With Elsa's changed heart came the hallmarks of that love, a new joy for life, and her own sacrifice in turn. She would love Anna enough to let her go.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

In the great cerulean bowl of the sky the sisters soared on the back of a giant snow-eagle. Reflections and angles of light shone on the edges of the magical creature, encompassing it like a whole-body halo, almost painful to look upon. It cut through the air with a soft whoosh of sound.

They were nearing Castle Arendelle, and Elsa kept urging the eagle to fly faster, faster, she had to get Anna to safety, to a physician, she had to save Anna as Anna had saved her.

Finally they were upon the last approach, the little city directly ahead. Beneath them was an ancient avalanche ravine, studded with rocky scree. The green of grass and tree was incredible; the delights of new summer determined to make up for the brief and unnatural winter.

The attack came from below.

Elsa did not see the fire arrow, shot from some unseen shadow on the ground, until it pierced the neck of the great snow-bird. The arrow's velocity narrowly abated, it nicked Anna's arm and then plunged into Elsa's upper shoulder, just below her collarbone. The force of it was incredible and excruciating, the whole shaft passing through her body until the tip erupted from her back, the flaming fletching protruding from her chest and singing her ice dress.

And the great eagle burst into showers of light and snow, perishing in a single catastrophic moment.

Then they were falling, oh they were plummeting out of the sky with the snow crystals of the vanquished eagle above them and around them, and Elsa knew only agony, fiery waves of pain too great to be borne, and the oblivion of faint that threatened to swallow her eyes.

Elsa did the only thing she could think of under the circumstances. Fear lent strength and power to her gift, and she formed a great snowdrift under them, deep and soft and just in time to catch their bodies and protect them against the boulders and outcrops and scrubby trees of the avalanche clearing.

Anna's limp body fell from her grasp, to tumble down the snow-hill. Elsa also hit the pile and rolled, down the slope and right into a great block of granite, the arrow snapping on both ends in the process, gouging a larger ragged hole in her muscle.

Blood of crimson, sharp against the snow.

She had no last thoughts. Oblivion claimed her for its own, and she fell unconscious.

…

The Captain could barely make sense of what he saw before him. They had followed Queen Elsa down the mountain as fast as their already-weary horses could take them, but they quickly fell behind in the wake of the great snow-eagle's power.

They hastened forward, never resting, never ceasing, compelled by their oath of fealty to the Crown and their new Queen. They finally saw the broad valley that led to Arendelle and the fjord.

Even from this distance, the white of the snow drift was so out of place it seemed to glow. They legged their horses to go even faster, and a short time later they were leaping from their mounts.

Princess Anna was like a crumpled rag doll on the edge of the drift, tacky with mud and grit but still breathing, still alive.

Queen Elsa was nowhere to be seen.

The Captain looked to his companion and ordered him down the mountain with all haste to muster a troop and return, bringing along extra grooms who would have a litter for the Princess.

After the man wheeled away, the Captain tended to Anna, making the unconscious girl as comfortable and safe as possible. Only then did he turn to the scene before him, to tease out exactly what had happened.

There was a depression in the snow by a boulder, conspicuous with blood. His trained eye could see how Queen Elsa must have rolled down the drift, the track her tumbling body had made, and then her final place against this boulder.

But where was the Queen now?

He started scanning the scree, the gnarled pines and low shrubs. He could see no trace of passage, no broken branches, no overturned rocks. It was as if the Queen had simply disappeared.

Several hours passed before the soldier returned with a cohort of men and the requested grooms. The castle physician had accompanied the men, and he swung down from his horse with his kit.

"Guard the Princess and the physician, and get them back to Arendelle as soon as possible," the Captain told the grooms. "I will leave two men to act as escorts for you. The rest of you, spread out and search this ravine. I want eyes on every inch of it. The Queen is missing."

These were his elite soldiers, stalwart men of the fjords, gifted in tracking and hunting. If anyone could find evidence of foul play, signs of a struggle, or the path of an escape route, it would be they.

Their only enemy now was time. Dusk was only an hour away, and already the mountains were casting their great and long shadows over the valley and the town.

…

The last wolf had fallen over the balcony, to bleed out and die on the ice cold floor. Anna had trembled, holding the club of ice in her frozen hands. She remembered sitting down for a moment, leaning against the wall behind her, and ripping strips from her cloak to tie up the worst of her bites and cuts. Exhausted, that was the last thing she remembered for some time.

Until waking from the cold, the second most intense she'd ever experienced. Cold, and dark, for up on the North Mountain there was no light except starlight, and the stars themselves were only gas orbs out in the deep cold. She tucked her hands between her thighs and curled into as tight a ball as she could manage, her thin summer cloak seeming no barrier at all to the slowly decaying ice palace around her.

Hours passed, devouring her sense of time and place. She could see a brilliant sun outside her prison, kept from her by the sheets of ice. But she did not fear, not really. She had been afraid, yes, when the wolves first found her, the ones whose fur had been singed, yes, by the burning blanket she had thrown at them.

There was no fear now. She knew Elsa would come.

So the next time she rose to consciousness, and felt the warmth of another body, even with her eyes closed she knew who had come. "Elsa?" she had said, and her sister's name had never been so glorious on her tongue.

Oh, she shouldn't feel this bliss, this joy, not here and not now. The secret of her affection would have to wait, maybe forever. She had no right to the feelings crowding every portion of her heart, no right to the bubble of joy that inflated her chest. Anna took Elsa's next words, the darling, the dear ones, and held them tight.

Her hand on Elsa's face, feeling the cool alabaster of her skin. Desperately needing that moment of closeness, of connection. There were so many frozen years behind them, so many moments to catch up on.

Dear Elsa's eyes, filled with love and concern.

And then her lips.

God, her lips!

Anna was shocked into stillness as Elsa's mouth closed over her own. Confusion. Jubilation. And amazing, so soft and so full, Anna's heart seemed to miss a beat, even as painful joy struck her in her breast. Just as she was about to reciprocate the glorious kiss with every illicit desire in her heart, the lips pulled away.

Elsa stopped kissing her way too soon, and though her sister turned away in seeming remorse, all Anna could think of was to hold her, to keep her foot propped in the proverbial door of Elsa's affections. So she held on tight, and babbled whatever came to mind, until she saw Elsa smile once more.

Only when Elsa began to move her did Anna realize how stiff she was, how painful her arm and leg. Elsa helped her to her feet, and she nearly lost consciousness right then and there, vertigo tilting every fractal of the palace.

Time misbehaved again. She saw the broad grass lawn, and the majesty of the magic snow eagle waiting for them there. Sunlight glinted off his every curve, striking her in the eyes, and when she closed them, she did not open them again.

Anna felt greatly distant from her body each of the fleeting moments she forced wakefulness upon herself during their flight down the mountain. She wanted clarity so much, to be so beautifully aware of Elsa's arms holding her so tight, to feel the wind on her face and the warmth of Elsa on her back. But underneath the bandages, the wounds had cracked open and begun to seep once more.

She allowed the darkness to swallow her again, knowing that Castle Arendelle was so very close, and that she was finally safe, because she was with her sister. And Elsa had kissed her, and the prospect of having another such kiss was enticing beyond all reason, and if she allowed herself to sleep the rest of the way, that glorious moment would only come the faster.

So she knew nothing until waking again, in a dimly lit room that had ornate crown moulding by the ceiling, and it was a ceiling she knew intimately well, seeing as she had spent so many hours lying in bed, sleepless, staring up at it.

It took some effort to sweep the cobwebs from her eyes, to finally open them and gain some sense of her surroundings. As she opened her eyes, she could hear a sigh of relief.

Elsa?

No, it was Gerda, and she was ashen-faced but glad. Anna's vision cleared even more and she recognized the royal physician nearby.

Elsa was nowhere to be seen, and her absence was like a knife in Anna's heart.

"Princess Anna, at last," the physician said, coming forward to put his fingers on her wrist and count her pulse. Satisfied with her heartbeat, he waved two fingers above her head and told her to follow them with her eyes, and tell him how many they were, and after several such horrendous time wasters, she said, "Enough already! I'm feeling okay. Where is Elsa? Why isn't she here?"

The look that passed between Gerda and the physician was ominous.

She had seen that look before.

Three years ago.

The day the court went into formal mourning for a year.

"Tell me!" Anna cried.

It was Kai who spoke, coming through the open door to her bedchamber. "Your Highness, what do you remember of the last few days?"

She growled out the highlights, and then asked for Elsa again.

"What is the very last thing you remember?" he asked.

Infuriated, Anna said she remembered the eagle, and some unknown span of time flying through the air, towards home.

"And nothing else?" he prompted.

"No!" she shouted. "Now please tell me!"

"We don't know all of it," Kai said, taking her attitude in the same calm, competent manner in which he conducted all his royal business. "Something happened to her. We found you unconscious on a large drift of snow, presumably from the eagle, who had somehow dissolved its form."

She listened, dumbfounded.

The door had shut on Elsa again.

Two seconds later she was trying to get out of bed, with Gerda leaping to hold one arm, the physician the other. "Your Highness, you cannot do anything. You are ill, you must rest!"

"I'm not sick, now let me go!"

He was adamant. "You have a fever, Princess Anna, and some of your wounds are bound with stitches. You've narrowly escaped death by exposure, and you are terribly dehydrated. You are in no condition to go anywhere, besides night having already fallen."

Kai hurried forward to console her as well, saying, "We have sent our best trackers in pursuit of the Queen, and the soldiers from the local barracks are conducting a thorough search of the immediate area. Just hours ago we managed to locate Van Dooren, and he is also out there with a brace of bloodhounds to track the Queen's scent. What you must do is get well, and nothing else. It's what the Queen would have wanted."

"The Queen doesn't always get what she wants," Anna hissed.

He was unruffled. "Nevertheless, you shall stay here until the physician declares you fit to leave. I also would be very sorry to place guards outside your door and in the courtyard under your window, but I will do it, Princess, if I have to."

Anna looked from one face to the other. Fools. They didn't understand. They didn't know what happened on the upper balcony between Anna and her sister – it was certainly part of the narrative she had no intention of sharing.

Great despair shadowed her heart, made her breath a tumult. It was all too much. Three or four days to completely alter the course of her life. Her path should have been straight and narrow and lifeless and dull.

She could not bear it, their compassion, and their pity. Anna managed to keep the tears at bay until everyone had finally left her room.

Then she subjected herself to the most damningly beautiful reminiscence, every heart-worthy moment of the past few days, each of them a pebble destined to divert whole rivers from their previous course, and change the course of her future forever.

And she wept for Elsa, for the dire fortune that seemed to stalk her beloved sister. As full night fell and the shadows grew in malice and depth in every corner of her room, she imagined everything that could have befallen her sister, every awful ending that could occur.

Tears leaked from her eyes to run down her cheek and into the pillow, caught and absorbed as if they never existed at all. Bereft and lonesome, Anna touched her lips with her fingers and wished she had taken that moment, up in the ice palace, to kiss her sister the way she really wanted to. She wanted Elsa to know, without a doubt, how beautiful she was, how integral to Anna's happiness. That she was the first, the last, and the only thing that mattered.

Finally, she slept.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

There was the sound of dripping nearby, just irregular enough to finally pull Elsa from a pained and thin sleep. She opened her eyes to blackness, so intense that she actually touched her eyelids to be sure they were open, and then sat upright.

The dripping continued, and frost covered the stone bench underneath her hands. She could not retract it, not while her shoulder shrieked in pain, not while the darkness pressed into her eyeballs like a lobotomy. The all too familiar fear was her companion now.

She lifted a hand away from its icy perch and touched her upper shoulder. There was a bandage underneath her cloak and dress, and when she lightly pressed the wound it yowled right back at her.

Dripping, dripping.

Elsa concentrated, and was finally able to cast a glowing orb of ice into the air.

She wished she hadn't. She was not alone.

It was hard to determine exactly how long the corpse had been in this tiny round room, long enough at least for it to stop stinking and become slightly mummified. There were fetters on his ankles, and when she looked down she saw fetters on her own.

A wave of ice swept the walls, automatically discharged by her nerves in her spine. The glowing orb hovered near great beams of timber high above. There was no window, and she searched in vain for a door before finally realizing it was way above her head, set into the ceiling.

Elsa was imprisoned in a great and narrow pit, lined with flagged stone.

She wasted no time in focusing an icy blast to the locks on her ankle fetters; they cracked open just as they had only two days ago in her own dungeon in Arendelle. She put her hand on the stone wall, and immediately pulled it back. The stone was warm, almost hot to the touch.

The pain of her sundered shoulder was immediate and unnerving. Elsa set it aside as best as she could as she levelled an icy blast to the trap door far above.

Just before it could strike the wood, a wave of fire rippled across the ceiling, countering her magic. The wave took on the form of serpents, with fanged jaws agape, and those mouths closed over the icy globes of light she had created, to swallow and extinguish them.

Once again she was plunged into a most heinous blackness, the serpents of fire gone as if they'd never existed. Elsa staggered back and sat heavily on the bench, her palm lightly pressing the bandage on her shoulder. Her mind was whirling; this was magic much like her own, but who possessed it? Who had taken her captive, and why?

The dripping continued in its dastardly variance.

The room got warmer.

Elsa called forth the icy light once more, but did not cast them so high. Once again her eyes passed over her dead cell-mate, then continued scouring the walls, looking for clues and for the source of the drip. She could find neither.

The temperature rose. She could feel sweat forming between her shoulder blades, between her thighs. Elsa renewed her ice dress, and was momentarily comforted.

A lightning decision and impulse, another great ice rocket to the door in the ceiling, which was just as quickly swallowed by flames. The serpents who then ate her globes of light almost seemed to mock her for stupidity.

Back into the blackness she plunged, a more genuine fear lacing her veins with lead. Elsa had learned just how much power she had; to find her magic overridden by another was terrifying. For the first time since waking in the dark, she feared for her life.

Elsa closed her eyes and began a series of deep, rhythmic breathing that her mother had taught her. It had sometimes helped to calm her in the endless years of her teens. She felt the fear clawing up her throat, and no amount of meditation could stop it. Before she could stop herself, Elsa began screaming and banging on the hot stones.

Red licks of light appeared in the cracks of the mortar, and Elsa stepped back, assaulted by deadly heat.

She heard chuckling, and whirled to look at the corpse against the wall. The glowing heat provided a most unholy light that wiggled and squirmed and made the body seem almost alive. When the chuckle came again, this time her response was cold and hard logic.

She had been imprisoned by someone with fire magic. That person was tormenting her with increasing heat, with countering her own power. That person was throwing his voice and laughing at her, which gave her insight into the kind of person he was.

Sadistic. Vengeful. And a little off his nut. A dangerous combination in any regard, but Elsa no longer felt fear.

She felt anger, instead. He was wasting Elsa's precious time, she had no idea if Anna was safe and well, and whatever he thought to gain by this kidnapping, she'd be sure to educate him otherwise.

A whisper in her heart showed her a course of action to take. Her mind tried to reject it, to convince her of its folly, but her heart could not be moved. A choice of courage over fear, yet another gift directly from her beloved sister.

Love for Anna pulsed strong and wide, softening the anger within, and she followed the narrow path of love and forgiveness before her.

Elsa drew the magic back along her spine, this time soft and expansive, not hard or brittle. She could feel the softness flourishing there, gaining in strength and potency. The heat within her stone prison was quickly becoming unbearable, but she left her magic alone, let it stay flexible and soft.

Soft and full, like the perfection of Anna's lips. How she longed to touch her again, to fold her forever in her embrace, to sip from the cordial of her lips and mouth. No guilt, never guilt or remorse or worry, not here and now when she needed Anna's love most.

The love that kept her magic soft and perfect like dandelion fuzz, just waiting for the puff of wind to cast it into the skies, to dance forever on currents of wind in the embrace of sun and sky.

The red light in the mortar remained, as did the elusive dripping sound. Thirst caked her tongue and throat, but she calmed her power, left it alone. Let her captor believe her to be subdued, capitulating.

Elsa had no sense of the passing of time, no way to mark the hours of her confinement. When her thirst became too much to bear, she released the tiniest thread of magic into an icicle upon her palm.

And love for Anna overcame any residual fear, and the ice melted in her palms, and she gratefully drank.

In silence she waited, for if there was any trait she had honed to perfection over the years, it was patience.

She waited for the chink in her captor's magic to appear.

After what seemed a lifetime, it did.

…

A fit of coughing brought Anna to a state of near alertness. Her eyelids felt so very heavy, her body a great writhing mass, and she curled over the coughs that threatened to pull her lungs inside out. Breath was short, unstable. As if from a distance she could hear her teeth chattering, as well as the buzzing of small, soft wasps, which turned out to be the voices of her caretakers and physician.

Warm hands touching her fevered cheeks and forehead, more of that buzzing noise. She couldn't quite rouse from her lethargy to understand what they were saying. She only knew she felt both hot and cold, and to cough again would be awful, but cough again she did, so long and hard she vomited a thin bile over the covers.

Activity, so much hustle and bustle around her. So many soft wasps, buzzing and buzzing in discordant and obtuse tones. Anna was vaguely aware of being transferred to another bed, in a far part of the castle. Wet cloths were applied to her skin. An incision was made in her forearm by the physician, a bowl underneath to catch her blood.

She thought she heard the word pneumonia, but couldn't quite tell. Wasps had such funny voices. She thought she heard arguing.

She also thought she heard Kristoff's voice, far away, telling her that the search for Elsa continued, that he had talked to his family and that they were searching as well. Grandpappy troll would find her, make no mistake.

Anna seemed to float outside her body when the bloodletting was done. But another fit of coughing, complete with bloody mucous, anchored her back within her own frame. When her lungs were finished with their gyrations, she lay shivering on her bed.

And in every moment when she was conscious enough of her own thoughts, she spent them with Elsa. Remembering her sister's stark beauty up on the landing of the ice palace, as gorgeous and untouchable as a star.

Then the moment of choice, to accept the sword that would reap her soul from her bones. The last puff of breath that would ever escape her body.

Her heart burned in remembrance of Elsa's sobs against her frozen form, Anna's soul in the just-beyond. She had been able to look upon that scene and she wept as well for the life of her sister. Never for one moment beyond the veil had she regretted her actions, her sacrifice on Elsa's behalf. If her life was necessary, then she was glad to give it to the one person she loved most of all. Her soul would rest easily upon the laurels of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, and upon its cosmic boughs she would find her mother and father.

And then she would wait, she would wait forever for the blessed reunion with her sister.

The Old Gods took her sacrifice, and sanctified it, and offered her a chance to return.

And even though she could feel her soul wanting to ascend, and even though she could see the figures of her parents in the great glowing distance, Anna eagerly took the chance to return. The awakening was glorious, and Anna melted into Elsa's embrace, and never wanted to let her go. Love for Elsa filled every part of her soul.

Love that she no longer wanted to reason away or hide. If she had learned any lesson these past few tumultuous days, it was to seize every moment of life. Perhaps the illicit and romantic love she felt for her sister was wrong, but at this moment, Anna simply didn't care. Life was far too short to worry about such things. Disaster was far too close, the whirling of fate too unpredictable.

To live is to love.

Even now that deep and enduring love remained. Anna trembled in the throes of fever and infection, and ever her thoughts turned back to her lost sister.

She would not curse the gods, not even at this strange turn of fate. Not when the gods had granted her a second life. With all her heart she believed that she and Elsa had been spared, that some great purpose yet lay before them, that time and experience would prove the ends of her devotion and her faith.

Such was the strength of Anna's heart, as vast and strong as the backbone of the mountains surrounding their kingdom.

Such was Anna's courage, even now, at the end of all things.


End file.
